This article addresses a prominent gap in sociological studies of consumption and disposal. Whilst waste and disposal studies have traditionally focused on the production of waste or its subsequent treatment at municipal disposal facilities, little has focused sociologically on waste outside of these confines, such as littering and fly-tipping. Focusing on the latter, this article makes an original contribution by drawing on fly-tipping to demonstrate the need for further sociological study on material abandonment and its relevance for the fields of consumption and disposal, and more broadly issues of sustainability. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 14 local authority waste officers and local councillors, we argue that fly-tipping disrupts the usual linear pathways of consumption, occurring in transitional zones between the site of production/ownership of objects/materials (e.g. households, construction sites) and that of its acceptance and treatment into formal waste infrastructures (local authority waste processing). We illustrate how fly-tipping incorporates both aspects of disjuncture and abandonment but that it cannot simply be positioned as an act without care. We do this through a focus on three interconnected key facets of fly-tipping: (1) the complexity of defining; (2) issues of measurement and responsibility; and (3) socio-economic factors and the influence of the built environment.

中文翻译：

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非法倾倒垃圾和遗弃社会学


本文探讨了消费和处置社会学研究中的一个突出差距。虽然废物和处置研究传统上侧重于废物的产生或其在市政处置设施的后续处理，但很少有社会学关注这些范围之外的废物，例如乱扔垃圾和非法倾倒垃圾。本文专注于后者，通过利用苍蝇倾倒来证明需要进一步研究物质丢弃及其与消费和处置领域的相关性，以及更广泛的可持续性问题，从而做出原创性研究。通过对 14 名地方当局废物官员和地方议员的定性访谈，我们认为非法倾倒扰乱了通常的线性消费途径，发生在物品/材料的生产/所有权地点（例如家庭、建筑工地）与其接受和处理到正式废物基础设施（地方当局废物处理）之间的过渡区。我们说明了非法倾倒垃圾如何包含分离和遗弃这两个方面，但不能简单地将其定位为一种不关心的行为。我们通过关注非法倾倒垃圾的三个相互关联的关键方面来做到这一点：（1） 定义的复杂性;（2） 衡量和责任问题;（3） 社会经济因素和建筑环境的影响。